Gold logs first fall in 8 sessions
San Francisco (Mar 27) Gold futures settled with a loss on Friday, putting an end to a seven-session stretch of gains that had lifted prices to their highest level in more than three weeks.
Prices rallied particularly strongly over the past two trading sessions as declines in global equities and turmoil in Yemen helped buoy safe-haven investment demand for the metal.
Gold for April delivery GCJ5, -0.61% shed $5, or 0.4%, to settle at $1,199.80 an ounce Friday on Comex. During their seven-session climb, gold futures tallied a total gain of 4.9%. For the week, prices gained 1.3%.
May silver SIK5, -1.20% settled down 7.1 cents, or 0.4%, at $17.069 an ounce, leaving it with a weekly gain of 1.1%.
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The main underlying factor behind the advance of the last few weeks is the European Central Bank quantitative-easing program, said Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at CMC Markets. Comments from the ECB president “indicating the program is going well so far are supportive for gold.”
Gold futures on Thursday had pushed past $1,200 as investors backed away from riskier assets amid broad declines in the equity markets and ramped-up tension in the Middle East.
Prices for the metal didn’t show much reaction to U.S. data Friday, which confirmed an earlier reading that economic growth slowed in the final three months of the year. Fourth-quarter growth remained at 2.2%.
Recent declines in the greenback have contributed to gains for dollar-denominated gold. The U.S. ICE dollar index DXY, +0.01% on Friday traded 0.2% lower.
Looking ahead to next week, traders are looking toward the March U.S. jobs data due Friday and February’s core personal consumption indexon Monday, said Erik Gebhard, co-founder of Altavest Worldwide Trading. “The jobs and inflation data are key metrics that the [Federal Reserve] monitors, and they will both influence their decision on when rate hikes should take effect,” said Gebhard. See the Economic Calendar.
Other metals weakened along with gold and silver. May copper HGK5, -1.62% dropped 4.35 cents, or 1.6%, to $2.7675 a pound — up roughly 0.2% for the week. April platinum PLJ5, -1.30% fell $10.40, or 0.9%, to $1,143.60 an ounce — 0.2% higher from the week-ago settlement. June palladium PAM5, -4.31% gave up $32.35, or 4.2%, to $741 an ounce, losing around 4.9% for the week.
Source: MarketWatch
